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THE  REFLEX  POWER 
OF  MISSIONS. 


AN  ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE 


GENERAL  SYNOD  oj  the  REFORMED  CHURCH 
IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


BY  GENERAL  JOHN  E.  ROLLER, 

HARRISONBURG,  VIRGINIA. 


WE  ON  BSD  A Y EVENING,  MAY  17,  1905, 


AT  ALLENTOWN,  PA. 


THE  REFLEX  POWER 


OF  MISSIONS. 


^-V  ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE 


GENERA/.  SYNOD  of  the  REFORMED  CHURCH 
IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


BY  GENERAL  JOHN  E.  ROLLER. 

HARRISONBURG,  VIRGINIA. 


WEDNESDAY  EVENING.  MAY  17.  1905. 
AT  ALLENTOWN.  PA. 


HENKEL  & COMPANY, 
PRINTERS  AND  PUBLISHERS, 
NEW  MARKET,  VA. 


THE  REFLEX  POWER  OF  MISSIONS. 


Would  to  God  that  some  one  more  worthy  than  I 
had  been  chosen  to  make  this  address  tonight — but  it 
is  your  call — your  command — and  I have  simply  an- 
swered— “ Here  am  I.”  If  any  one  should  feel  ag- 
grieved at  any  sentiment  of  mine,  I ask  that  it  be  re- 
membered that  I speak  from  the  standpoint — not  of  a 
city  like  this,  full  of  people  of  the  Reformed  Church  ; 
but  of  one,  who  knows  of  many,  many  preaching  points 
in  the  great  South,  once  occupied  by  the  church,  but 
long  since  lost  to  it ; of  one  who  can  tell  of  members 
who  remained  loyal  to  our  church  for  nearly  half  a cen- 
tur}’,  without  having  heard  the  voice  of  one  of  its  min- 
isters, and  who  were  buried  at  last, — still  loyal  and 
faithful — at  the  hands  of  others  than  their  own  faith ; 
of  one,  who  lives  in  territory  where  synods  of  our  church, 
not  classes  merely,  should  be  in  existence  today,  and  in 
which  its  members  feel  their  lack  of  sympathy  and  fel- 
lowship, when  they  come  to  stand  in  the  presence  of  the 
great  congregations  of  other  sections.  It  may  be  pos- 
sible too  that  like  St.  Paul,  I ought  to  say  that  “ I speak 
as  a fool.” 

Too  long!  oh,  far  too  long,  had  the  Reformed  Church 
of  the  United  States, — a giant  in  its  opportunities  and 
possibilities — slept  upon  its  privileges  and  duties — too 
long  lain  inert — seemingly  bound,  in  the  feeble  meshes 
of  the  formalists,  who  had  gathered  about  and  presumed 
to  control  it ; — too  long  had  a part  of  this  Catholic  Church 
rested  upon  a mediaeval  belief,  in  a supreme  efficacy  of 
its  ordinances  and  sacraments  ; — too  long  had  it  been 
governed  by  the  few, — the  men  of  extreme  views,  who 
forgetful  of  the  right  of  the  vast  multitudes,  of  Protestant 
Christianity,  to  enlist  under  its  banners,  upon  the  broad- 


— 4 — 


est  creed  of  Christendom,  had  driven  out  its  pietists,  and 
those  of  evangelistic  sympathies — refused  to  recognize 
the  potential  influence  of  the  versicles  of  its  Tersteegens, 
and  of  the  glowing  utterances  of  its  Untereycks, — its 
Meanders — with  their  “ deep  sense  of  the  soul’s  need  of 
redexnption  and  of  an  abiding  in  Christ  as  the  Savior  from 
sin  ’ ’ — too  long  turned  eoldly  away  from  the  men  who 
would  have  led  those  who  desired,  towards  the  methods 
that  have  moved  the  earth,  and  made  other  organizations 
the  wonder  of  the  times, — too  long  refused  to  give  its 
laity  any  practical  voice,  either  in  the  government  of  its 
affairs,  or  in  the  conserving  of  its  apologetics — too  long 
failed  to  weld  that  laity,  either  by  fundamental  law  of 
organization,  or  by  discipline,  into  a brotherhood,  to 
each  other,  and  to  all,  in  church,  and  in  life — too  long, 
oh  ! too  long,  failed  to  enlist  its  sympath)'  in  the  service 
of  the  Church,  and  to  avail,  of  the  strength  and 
zeal,  the  fire  and  force,  the  enthusiasm,  yet  conserva- 
tism, that  always  belong  to  a body  of  working  humanity ! 

During  all  that  period,  too,  the  daysof  our  Church, 
like  those  of  the  people  of  Israel  on  their  pilgrimage  to- 
wards the  land  of  promise,  seemed  to  be  “ passed  away,  ’ ’ 
“not  in  His  favor,”  but  “in  God’s  wrath.”  The 
fathers,  as  they  looked  back  from  time  to  time,  must 
have  gazed,  with  weary  hearts,  upon  a record  of  com- 
parative failure.  Dike  the  Israelitish  host  on  the  plains 
of  Moab,  though  the  skies  above  them  were  gemmed 
with  beauty,  though  the  land  for  which  they  were 
striving  was  near  by,  though  the  Jordan  rippled  almost 
at  their  feet  on  its  way  to  the  sea,  it  was  hidden  from 
them  by  the  darkness  of  the  night,  and  the  murmur  of 
voices  that  comes  to  us  across  all  of  the  generations  since, 
from  their  tents  on  that  historic  ground,  reechoes  but 
too  faithfully,  the  sighs  of  wearied  hopes,  blasted  in  ful- 
fillment, and  tells  us  but  too  truly  of  the  doubts  which 
a limited  vision  gave  them  of  the  future,  and  its  tones 


— 5 — 


break  upon  our  ears  as  that  of  a sad  and  stately  dirge. 
Oh  ! is  it  not  probable  that  the  most  faithful  of  their 
leaders — the  incomparable  Moses — the  greatest  of  the 
leaders  and  law-givers  of  earth — must  himself  have  felt 
a premonition  of  soul,  which  told  him  of  his  own  death 
before  the  host  of  God’s  elect  should  cross  the  river,  and 
of  his  own  lonely  grave  on  Nebo’s  mountain. 

No  wonder,  then,  that  his  prayer,  in  the  ninetieth 
psalm,  was  one  of  sadness,  revealing,  oh,  so  faithfully, 
the  disappointments  he  must  have  felt,  and  the  doubts 
and  weariness  of  his  followers. 

So,  too,  must  our  fathers  have  felt  as  they  saw  pro- 
phetically, that  future,  in  which  this  country  should 
contain  a population — one-tenth  of  which,  or  eight  mil- 
lions at  least,  should  carry  in  its  veins  the  blood  of 
Reformed  stock — while  the  Church  should  be  able  to 
claim  the  adherence  of  but  one-eightieth  or  one  million. 
Doubtless  they  felt  that  the  momentous  inquiry  would 
some  day  be  made,  “by  whom,  and  when,  and  how, 
were  the  great  opportunities,  which  must  at  one  time, 
at  least,  have  been  before  our  Church,  in  this  great  new 
land  of  the  West,  lost  to  us?’’ 

The  camp  fires  of  Moab  have  gone  out  long  since. 
No  trace  even  of  their  ashes  can  be  found  amidst  the 
dust  of  ages — no  record  of  the  names  of  the  great  lead- 
ers of  the  Jewish  people  of  that  day, — save  those  of 
Moses  and  Joshua, — has  survived  the  mutations  and  de- 
cay of  time.  The  forces  that  then  moved  about  them 
have  long  since  gone  from  earth,  but  on  the  hill-tops 
of  human  history  the  glow  of  their  fires  still  lingers — it 
illumines  the  skies  even  yet,  and  across  the  centuries 
from  the  echoless  and  deathless  shore,  comes  the  whis- 
pered lament  : “ Thou  earnest  them  away  as  with  a 

flood  ; they  are  as  asleep.  They  are  like  the  grass  which 
groweth  up.  .In  the  morning  it  flourisheth  and  groweth 
up,  in  the  evening  it  is  cut  down  and  withereth.  For 


— 6 — 


we  are  consumed  by  Thine  anger  and  by  Thy  wrath 
are  we  troubled.  All  our  days  are  passed  away  in  Thy 
wrath.  We  spend  our  years  as  a tale  that  is  told.” 

But  even  as  there  comes  to  the  ears  of  our  imagi- 
nation the  voices  of  this — one  of  the  most  sorrowful  of 
all  human  experiences — and  the  words  of  the  saddest 
prayer  that  ever  came  from  human  hearts,  there  comes 
also  the  assurance  of  the  sweetest  of  hopes  : ‘ ‘ Let  Thy 
work  appear  unto  Thy  servants  and  Thy  glory  unto 
their  children. ''''  “The  eternal  God  is  our  refuge  and 
underneath  are  the  everlasting  arms.” 

So  that  beyond  the  imaginings  of  men,  far  into  the 
great  cycles  of  years,  in  which  Deity  is  working  out 
His  infinitely  wise  and  inscrutable  plans,  must  we  look 
for  the  realization  of  our  most  ardent  wishes.  Far  into 
the  future,  pregnant  with  the  hopes  of  a more  full  and 
glorious  day,  believed  in  and  hoped  for,  must  w^e  look 
for  the  success  that  we  should  have  had  to-day — the 
“glory”  shall  appear  unto  our  children.  Oh  ! do  we 
not  see  it  prophetically,  in  the  unity  of  the  whole  of 
Protestant  Christianity  upon  the  basis  of  the  sweetest 
and  most  ecumenical  of  all  creeds — the  creed  of  this 
Church. 

So,  also,  tonight,  far  beyond  the  faces  that  beam 
upon  us  here,  illuminated  by  the  blaze  of  civilization, 
and  lighted  by  the  hope  of  the  Christian  religion,  must 
we  look,  and  catch  some  faint  vision  of  the  great  myriads 
of  white,  and  black,  and  yellow  faces,  stretching  even 
to  the  farthest  corner  of  heathen  lands, — “the  na- 
tions of  the  heathen  world  in  their  need.”  Oh!  if  it 
be  true  that  the  most  pathetic  need  of  all,  is  the  lack  of 
the  sense  of  need,  how  deep,  indeed,  are  the  needs  of 
this  vast  multitude  ! 

Whether,  indeed,  any  honor  should  be  given  to 
any  one  or  more  of  all  the  leaders  who  have  preceded  ns 
in  our  Church,  and  who  have  long  since  gone  up  higher. 


— 7 — 


or  whether  it  was  the  result  of  some  Pentecostal  season , 
when  ‘ ‘ tongues  of  fire  ’ ’ rested  upon  more  than  one 
head  in  the  “assembly  of  the  saints,”  certain  it  is,  that 
from  the  day, — when  your  speaker  was  but  a child, — 
this  Church  sent  its  first  missionary — a Schneider,  to 
Broosa — to  the  present,  with  its  representatives,  in  far 
China  and  Japan,  it  began  to  feel  a deeper  thrill  in  every 
beating  pulse — an  interest  more  profound  in  the  sacred 
work  of  missions.  The  little  rivulet,  dropping  outward 
from  the  mountains  to  the  sea,  at  first  stealing  covertly 
along  grassy  meads,  and  through  shady  nooks,  has 
gathered  force  with  its  progress  until  today  it  is  one  of 
the  noblest  of  the  streams  of  missionary  activity.  With 
all  the  other  churches  of  militant  Protestantism,  we  too 
have  our  missionaries  and  the  institutions  that  belong 
with  them. 

It  is  not  assuming  too  much,  for  us,  to  believe  that 
it  was  the  thought,  that  our  own  church  was  so  deeply 
indebted  to  the  power  and  spirit  of  missions,  that  si- 
lently yet  irresistibly  forced  us  to  begin  our  part  in  the 
sw^eet  and  gracious  duties  of  the  work,  the  most  heroic 
and  lovable,  perhaps,  of  any  service  of  these  latter  days. 
Our  Church  had  not  forgotten — and  could  not  forget — 
the  little  Swiss  missionary  of  the  Dutch  church — our 
own  Schlatter — whose  zeal  was  so  intense  as  to  permit 
him  to  halt  for  rest,  after  his  long  voyage  across  the 
deep,  for  but  two  days,  before  he  began  his  work  of  ex- 
ploration and  service.  It  seems  not  inappropriate — oh ! 
if  he  were  only  some  other  person! — that  one  of 
your  speakers  should  have  come  from  the  vicinity  of 
Schlatter’s  southernmost  point,  when  the  subject  of  the 
evening,  is  that  of  missions.  Wherever  that  beloved 
missionary  held  a public  service,  or  even  invited  God’s 
blessing  upon  the  frugal  meals  of  colonial  days,  the 
lamp  of  this  Church  of  ours  is  still  burning — a church 
not  divided  by  the  rivers  of  the  Potomac  and  Ohio  into 


— 8 — 


two  sectional  bodies,  but  embracing  in  its  membership 
the  men  of  the  South  and  their  people,  as  well  as  those 
of  the  great  North. 

Oh  ! it  could  not  be  that  our  branch  of  the  great 
Reformed  Church  of  earth  should  not  respond — with 
grateful  zeal  and  joy — to  the  recollection,  of  the  loving 
and  tender  offices  of  the  Dutch  Church,  through  its 
great  missionary  organization,  that  of  the  Classis  of 
Amsterdam — in  its  behalf.  Were  the  Palatines  or  their 
descendants  ever  ungrateful  ? Have  they  not  kept 
through  all  these  years,  their  promise  to  England’s  no- 
blest and  most  gracious  sovereign — Queen  Anne — that 
they  would  remember  her  in  their  prayers,  and  perpet- 
uate her  name  among  their  children  ! Have  not  the 
swords  of  the  “forgotten  Huguenots,’’  those  who  had 
found  a refuge  in  Germany,  but  for  the  most  part  had 
lost  their  own  language  and  almost  their  identity,  in 
their  intermarriage  and  commingling  with  the  Teutonic 
race,  waived  over  many  a decisive  field,  until  at  the 
time  of  the  crowning  of  Emperor  William  the  First  at 
the  palace  of  Versailles,  after  the  Franco-Prussian  war, 
those  of  more  than  eighty  of  the  general  staff,  flashed 
in  air?  Have  not  these  forefathers  of  ours,  repaid 
every  kindness  shown  them,  with  the  most  unaffected 
and  untiring  loyalty  and  faithful  service  ? It  is  one  of 
the  few  instances — of  the  converse  of  which  there  are 
many — of  the  truth  that  it  is  sometimes  as  blessed  to 
receive,  as  to  give. 

Beyond  every  possibility  of  doubt — in  this  or  some 
other  way — the  work  was  begun  under  the  faithful 
and  earnest  fostering  of  the  faithful  souls  of  the 
Church  — the  little  grain  of  mustard  seed  has  be- 
come a great  tree  in  whose  branches  the  birds  may 
rest.  Today  we  recall  our  own  sentinels  on  the  out- 
post— our  own  missionaries  holding  the  lamp  of  our 
Church  on  high  in  north  Japan — our  own  colleges  of 


— 9 — 


learning,  manned  by  onr  own  leaders,  sent  by  ourselves, 
from  this  beloved  land  of  ours — with  their  Japanese  as- 
sociates, whom  we  have  trained  for  the  work — lying  on 
the  great  outlet  northward  for  the  armies  of  that  land 
of  the  white  blossom — and  the  women  of  our  own 
Church,  bearing  a loving  and  gracious  part,  in  caring  for 
the  wounded  and  sick  and  sore  of  the  Japanese  anny, 
near  by,  and  under  the  shelter  of  our  own  institutions. 
Can  any  one  doubt  that  these  will,  in  God’s  own  time, 
bear  no  feeble  or  ignoble  part,  in  lifting  the  people  of 
that  strange  land,  from  the  teachings  of  the  Samurai, 
that  self-destruction  rather  than  surrender  is  an  element 
of  national  patriotism — to  the  more  sublime  teaching 
of  the  Christian  religion,  that  “ self-effacement  in  serv- 
ice for  others”  is  a far  more  sweet  and  ennobling  senti- 
ment, one  that  is  destined,  in  the  plans  of  Deity  for  the 
elevation  of  mankind,  to  rule  the  whole  earth. 

The  light  of  these  efforts  of  our  Church,  in  that 
land  of  the  East,  could  not  from  its  very  nature,  remain 
a mere  local  and  transitory'  flame. 

“ Like  the  blaze  old  Lemnos  caught  on  high, 

From  its  holy  promontory,  it  may  not  stay. 

But  away  and  away  it  bounds. 

Into  ever  freshening  night.” 

China — with  its  teeming  millions  made  its  call  upon 
our  leaders — in  the  life  of  service — this  loving,  gracious, 
joy-bearing  and  joy-giving  work  for  others — and  two  of 
these  responded.  Did  I say  two  ? May  I reverently  say, 
three  ? Two  of  these  are  with  us  at  this  meeting 
— our  faithful  and  well-beloved  brother  Hoy,  and 
his  sweet  and  gentle  wife.  But  can  the  Church  forget 
— as  I know  it  does  not — their  noblest  gift  to  the  cause 
of  missions — the  greatest  that  could  be  made  by  mortal 
man — the  gift  of  their  little  son — little  David — the  boy 
missionary  to  the  far  East.  Doubtless  the  tears  of  many 
of  you  fell  fast  as  you  read  the  story  of  little  David’s  life. 


— 10  — 


healthful  and  comforting  to  all  about  him — of  his  inter- 
est in  the  great  and  noble  men,  who  are  doing  God’s  work 
in  that  great  land — of  the  influence  of  the  refined  and  en- 
nobling spirit  of  a frank,  trustful,  tender-hearted,  noble 
boy — the  product  of  American  life  and  institutions — as 
a model  to  the  abased  and  revolting  creatures — the 
product  of  the  teachings  and  methods  of  heathenism — 
of  the  standard  of  excellence  of  his  precious  young  life 
toward  which  young  heathen  humanity  must  be  taught 
to  aspire;  and  then,  of  that  sad  day  when  at  death’s 
call,  the  vision  of  a more  glorious  morning  opened  upon 
his  eyes  than  ever  came  to  him  on  earth,  and  his  last 
words  were,  not  “Good-bye”  or  “Good-night,”  but 
the  far  more  comforting  and  assuring  words,  that  told 
of  heaven,  and  of  the  glories  of  the  home  of  God’s  elect, 
that  greeted  him  almost  as  he  spoke  them — the  same 
words  which  your  own  children  speak  as  they  come  into 
the  first  feast  in  their  father’s  house — “Good  morning.” 
Oh  ! ye  men  and  women  of  the  Church,  as  I think  of 
little  David  buried  in  that  quaint,  old  city  of  Hangkow 
on  the  great  river  of  China,  which,  rising  in  Great  Tibet, 
in  the  mountains  covering  a region  so  elevated  as  to  be 
known  as  the  “ roof  of  the  world,”  flows  by  the  great 
city  embowered  in  the  plains  at  their  feet,  his  little  grave 
covered  each  year  to  the  depth  of  half  an  hundred  feet, 
by  the  annual  swell  of  the  river,  and  of  the  great  floods 
that  come  from  the  lands  above, — as  the  earth  and  water 
there  seem  to  me  to  rest  so  heavily,  and  with  such  tre- 
mendous force  and  weight,  upon  his  lonely  grave, — I feel 
that  I must  challenge  you,  for  the  gift  of  your  sons  and 
of  your  daughters,  and  if  that  be  not  indeed  practicable, 
for  your  paltry  gifts  of  money,  to  sustain  in  this  work 
these  noble  friends  of  ours,  who  have  served  us  so  well. 

Ought  not  the  children  of  the  Church  to  be  called 
upon  to  build  a memorial  to  our  own  little  David,  with 
which,  in  his  memory,  we  may  help  to  strike  down  the 


— n — 


('Toliah  of  heathenism  in  China,  and  should  we  not  make 
it,  not  only  a memorial  to  him,  but  to  onr  own  sons  and 
daughters  who  have  long  since,  perhaps  gone  before  ns, 
and  with  him  await  onr  coming,  around  the  great  white 
throne  ? 

Oh  ! is  there  not  inspiration,  too,  in  the  fact  that 
Dr.  Kelley  and  his  wife,  the  missionaries  who  have  come, 
from  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church,  the  foster 
sister,  in  doctrine  and  practices  of  onr  own,  and  from 
the  Sonth,  too, — that  land  which  God’s  own  snn  has 
kissed  into  such  a wealth  of  beauty  and  fertility,  that 
all  its  people  love  it,  and  many  there  have  been  who 
died,  as  they  believed  for  it,  to  this  Church  of  ours,  na- 
tional in  its  existence  and  membership,  and  with  them, 
have  brought  a call  to  us,  to  care  for  him  and  his  mis- 
sion, as  its  importance  to  China,  and  to  us  as  a Church, 
demands  ? Ye  men  of  the  North  and  West,  if  you  would 
make  the  blood  of  your  brethren  of  the  South  tingle  in 
their  veins,  give  these  brethren  of  ours  from  the  South 
the  most  valued  and  the  most  precious  of  your  offerings. 

The  great  heart  of  all  the  people,  of  the  great  re- 
gion of  the  Cumberland  IMountains  of  the  South,  and  of 
their  form  of  the  Presbyterian  faith  wherever  found, 
whether  in  mountain  fastnesses,  “ on  the  heights  where 
lie  repose,”  on  the  broad  savannas  of  the  South,  or  on 
the  long  sweep  of  the  great  prairies  of  the  southwest, 
from  which  these  missionaries  of  oirrs  have  come,  will 
beat  with  a sweet  and  holy  joy,  as  they  hear  that  we  are 
giving  an  ungrudging  and  loyal  support  to  these  rep- 
resentatives of  theirs  ; and  our  own  Church,  from  its 
scattered  adherents  in  Georgia,  and  the  South,  through 
the  Carolinas  and  the  Virginias,  to  the  crowded  congre- 
gations of  the  North,  will  feel  the  revivifying  influence 
and  the  mighty  resultant  that  ever  comes  from  good  deeds. 

What  an  inspiring  gift  it  is,  too,  that  which  comes 
to  us  from  the  British  Government,  wrung  from  the  Chi- 


— J2  — 


nese  authorities  as  indemnity  for  the  great  losses  and 
sacrifices  which  the  subjects  of  Great  Britain  had  en- 
dured at  the  hands  of  a rebellious  people,  at  the  time  of 
the  great  uprising  in  China  of  recent  years,  indemnity 
for  the  sorrows,  and  even  for  the  blood,  of  persons  of 
whom  we  know  nothing,  though  we  are  the  recipients 
of  the  benefits  of  their  sufferings,  and  through  which 
our  church  is  to  reap  the  reward  to  which  others  are  per- 
haps more  entitled? 

Is  there  no  inspiration  in  the  fact,  not  only  that  the 
President  of  the  United  States  worships  in  what  was 
once  a little  mission  of  our  church  in  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington, that  the  Emperor  of  the  German  empire  honors 
our  church  by  an  invitation  to  our  representative,  the 
President  of  this  Synod,  to  attend  the  dedication  of  the 
great  Protestant  Cathedral  of  Berlin,  but  that  the  Gov- 
ernment of  Great  Britain,  that  power  “ whose  morning 
drum-beat,  following  the  sun  and  keeping  company  with 
the  hours,  encircles  the  earth  daily  with  the  continuous 
strain  of  its  martial  music,”  has  intrusted  to  our  mis- 
sionaries the  administration  of  this  great  fund  ? 

It  may  have  been  long  since  forgotten  by  the  vast 
majority  of  the  people  of  that  great  empire,  but  it  has 
not  escaped  the  attention  of  Him  in  whose  hands  are 
the  destinies  of  men  and  of  nations  and  of  whom  it  is 
written  ‘‘  I will  repay,  saith  the  Lord,”  that  Protestant 
England  is  more  indebted  to  Zurich,  and  to  Zwingli  and 
Bullinger  and  Leo  Juda,  and  the  other  leaders  of  our 
Reformed  Church,  and  the  people  under  them,  than  to 
any  other  men  or  people  of  all  the  earth,  not  only  for 
its  Thirty-nine  Articles  which  Archbishop  Grindal,  de- 
clared to  our  Peter  Martyr,  had  been  adopted  by  the 
English  Church  ” without  the  paring  of  a nail’s  differ- 
ence,” but  even  for  the  initial  letters  of  the  books  of  its 
first  Protestant  bible,  which  our  own  printer  Froschouer, 
he  who  printed  the  first  Protestant  bible  of  all  the  world. 


— 13  — 


in  German  in  1530,  loaned  to  Miles  Coverdale  for  the 
printing  of  the  first  English  bible  of  1535,  and  for  every 
other  possible  kindness  and  hospitality,  and  assistance, 
of  every  sort,  material,  and  educational,  that  was  needed 
or  could  be  given  to  the  refugees  of  the  English  Church, 
in  the  days  of  Mary.  So  unusual,  and  so  remarkable, 
was  this  service  and  so  gratefully  was  it  appreciated, 
that  Bishop  Jewell,  after  his  return  to  England  from  ex- 
ile, wrote  most  feelingly  “O  Zurich!  Zurich!  How 
much  oftener  do  I think  of  thee,  than  I ever  thought  of 
England,  w'hen  I was  at  Zurich,”  and  John  Parkhurst 
ended  one  of  his  letters  from  a full  heart,  with  the  glow- 
ing words,  ” City  of  Zurich,  farewell.  Woe  betide  those 
who  wish  thee  not  all  prosperity.  City  of  Zurich,  fare- 
well.” 

In  the  wide  sweep  of  prophetic  vision  do  we  not  see, 
too,  coming  with  the  march  of  time,  the  day  when  the 
remnant  of  the  negro  race  in  America,  of  whom  the 
thoughtful  already  begin  to  speak  as  ‘ ‘ the  doomed  race,  ’ ’ 
shall  be  charged  with  the  great  and  responsible  work  of 
caring  for  and  carr\ung  to  triumph  the  evangelization  of 
Africa,  and  will  not  our  Church  bear  its  part  in  that 
work,  both  here  and  on  the  Dark  Continent  ? It  seemed 
to  your  speaker,  when  a few  years  ago,  some  congrega- 
tions of  the  colored  race  in  the  Carolinas,  applied  to  the 
authorities  of  our  Church,  to  be  taken  under  its  care, 
that  God  was  opening  the  door  to  the  very  great  honor, 
that  ought  to  be  sought  and  accepted  by  us,  of  bearing 
a part  in  the  work  of  missions  in  Africa  ; and  many,  no 
doubt,  like  him  felt  sad  indeed,  that  an  unfavorable  re- 
sponse had  to  be  given  them,  and  was  rejoiced  to  see 
that  our  brethren  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America 
had  gladly  met  the  call  of  ” our  brother  in  black,”  and 
that  one  branch,  at  least,  of  the  Reformed  Church  was 
to  share  in  the  happiness  and  honor  of  the  sacrifices  that 
must  be  made  in  their  behalf. 


— J4 


But  to  come  at  last  and  with  some  preparation,  in 
these  prefatory  remarks,  and  with  some  power  and  force, 
to  the  topic  of  this  occasion,  we  ask  ourselves  the  point- 
ed question.  Have  we  ourselves  gotten,  and  are  we  yet 
to  get,  nothing  out  of  all  this  effort  of  consecrated  men 
and  women,  and  the  work  carried  on  by  them,  with  such 
fervent  and  unflagging  zeal  ? Is  there  any  reflex  power 
in  missions  ? ^ 

Oh  ! has  there  been  no  increase  in  onr  ranks  of 
those,  who  may  well  be  called  “ God’s  own  nobility?” 
Not  of  those,  who  are  seeking  to  become  ” a people  of 
holiness,”  “ of  sanctification,  and  of  freedom  from  sin,” 
but  of  those  who  accept  the  words  of  Christ  himself : 
that  “if  ye  do  not  wash  each  other’s  feet,  ye  are  none 
of  mine,”  who  accept  as  did  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  after 
they  came  to  know  that  “ His  kingdom  was  not  of  this 
earth,”  the  saying  that  “ he  who  would  be  greatest 
among  you,  let  him  be  the  least,  and  he  that  would  be 
chief,  let  him  be  the  servant  of  all;”  as  the  potential 
teaching  of  the  Christian  religion,  its  life  and  fire,  that 
withont  which,  it  can  never  be  preached  successfully  to 
men ; and  with  it  the  thought,  that  brings  us  most 
nearly  in  touch  with  the  Infinite  that  ‘ ‘ all  that  we  get 
out  of  life  that  is  worth  having,  is  what  we  do  for  others,  ’ ’ 
those  who  like  the  disciples,  from  Calvary  forward  to 
the  end  of  life,  were  willing  to  endure  tribulation  and 
persecution,  and  even  death  itself,  for  the  glory  of  His 
name.  What  influence  of  dogma,  or  form  of  worship, 
what  indeed,  except  the  power  and  force  of  the  spirit  of 
missions,  that  can  endue  our  people  with  such  desires 
as  these,  and  what  but  these  desires  among  God’s  few, 
that  can  leaven  the  whole  mass. 

The  list  of  the  saved,  at  the  last  great  day,  will  be 
as  far  beyond  all  human  expectation,  as  God’s  promises 
are  wider  than  the  feeble  and  narrow  minds  of  men  will 
admit,  but  far  beyond  the  great  multitude,  will  be  the 


— 15  — 


“highest  born,”  “the  nobility  of  heaven,’’  those  who 
have  turned  many  to  righteousness.  Oh!  what  ecstasy 
of  joy  will  it  be  for  some  of  us,  if  only  we  can  be  among 
the  very  least  in  all  that  bright  throng,  but  for  these, 
what  au  infinity  of  triumph  in  the  words,  “Inasmuch  as 
ye  have  done  it  to  one  of  the  least  of  these,  ye  have 
done  it  unto  Me.’’ 

Oh ! do  not  our  seminaries  of  theology  know,  that 
the  minister,  or  teacher,  who  is  not  turned  out  from  their 
precincts,  with  his  vessel  filled  to  the  brim,  with  a pas- 
sion for  missionary'  work,  is  unworthy  to  be  a preacher 
to  men;  for  if  he  “speak  with  the  tongue  of  men  and 
angels,  and  have  not  charity,  he  is  as  sounding  brass, 
or  a clanging  cymbal.’’  Oh  ! if  their  lips  be  not  touch- 
ed with  this  living  coal,  if  they  cannot  see  the  fields  of 
earth,  white  for  God’s  harvest,  as  well  as  send  him  out 
as  a master  electrician,  as  a theologian,  to  fail,  for  in 
either  case  he  knows  nothing  of  the  wires,  laden  and 
quivering  with  the  messages  of  humanity.  Without 
such  a flame  burning  at  his  heart,  how  can  he  be  ex- 
pected to  warm  the  hearts  of  the  people,  whom  he  may 
serve,  arouse  them  from  apathy,- overcome  their  preju- 
dices, impart  to  them  knowledge,  of  the  needs  and  claims 
of  missionary  work,  and  secure  from  them  the  co-opera- 
tion without  which  every  work  of  the  church  must  fail. 

Oh  1 do  they  not  see,  too,  that  the  missionary'  work 
of  the  world  has  demonstrated  the  truth,  that  it  is  no 
mere  cult,  that  is  to  contend  successfully  with  the  other 
religions  of  the  earth, — not  the  bible  of  the  higher  criti- 
cism, but  the  bible  taught  us  at  our  mother’s  knees,  the 
old  simple  faith,  in  a Redeemer,  almighty  and  willing  to 
save,  and  of  a life  of  as  close  and  immediate  fellowship 
with  Him,  as  the  gross  limitations  of  the  human  heart 
will  permit. 

Do  we  not  also  know,  that  in  the  unity  of  mission- 
ary work  which  has  come  to  modern  theology,  we  are 


— J6  — 


far  nearer  to  church  unity,  the  hope  and  prayer  of  all 
true  followers  of  Christ,  than  ever  before?  Our  repre- 
sentatives in  the  foreign  field,  are  not  pressing  upon  the 
heathen  committed  to  their  charge,  the  peculiar  beliefs, 
if  any  indeed  we  have,  of  our  Church,  but  the  essential 
doctrines  of  Christian  faith.  Nor  are  they  assailing  the 
missionaries  of  our  sister  churches,  and  the  work  that 
is  being  done  by  them,  upon  any  of  the  various  differ- 
ences between  our  church  and  theirs  in  doctrine  or 
methods,  for  they  find  their  work,  appalling  as  it  must 
appear  to  them,  in  its  vast  proportions,  in  battling  with 
the  creed  of  the  Mahomedan,  the  Buddhist,  and  the 
Brahman.  To  the  fatalism  of  the  one,  they  must  oppose 
the  Christian’s  view  of  the  sweetness  and  comfort  of  a 
belief  in  God’s  own  decrees  ; to  the  self-discipline  of  the 
other,  they  must  add  the  still  nobler  creed,  the  immola- 
tion of  self  in  the  service  for  others,  as  the  vital  fire  of 
Christianity  itself.  It  is  fervently  to  be  hoped  that  the 
young  people’s  leagues  and  the  other  societies  of  the 
Protestant  Churches  of  to-day,  all  of  whom,  with  but 
few  exceptions,  contravene  in  effect,  at  least  to  some 
extent,  the  fervent  desire  of  Christ,  may  not  prove  an 
obstacle  in  the  march  which  the  Church  of  God  is  mak- 
ing, without  much  appreciable  progress,  but  neverthe- 
less without  delay,  towards  that  unity  which  was  the 
prayer  of  our  Savior  himself. 

This  missionary  work  of  ours  has  educated  the 
women  of  our  church,  and  most  of  its  intelligent  men, 
to  the  fact  that  woman,  too,  can  take  a prominent  and 
most  important  part  in  the  work  of  evangelizing  the 
world,  not  only  in  the  field  abroad,  but  in  the  perplex- 
ing problem,  of  its  adequate  sustentation,  by  the  efforts 
of  the  people  of  the  church  at  home. 

The  voice  of  this  church  has  authoritatively  spoken 
through  its  highest  authority,  that  of  this  General  Syn- 
od itself,  in  favor  of  giving  the  women  of  our  church 


— 17  — 


their  due  share  of  this  noble  work  ; and  the  subordinate 
body,  that  refuses  to  obey  the  behest  of  the  supreme 
adjudicatory  of  the  church,  and  refuses  to  permit  the 
women  of  our  church  to  do  the  work  for  which  they 
are  so  well  fitted,  and  which  they  so  anxiously  desire 
to  do,  defies  the  “powers”  that  “be  of  God.” 

The  wider  and  more  important  our  missionary 
work  becomes,  the  more  thoroughly  will  it  educate  our 
children^  into  the  great  truth,  that  the  nations  of  the 
whole  earth  are  like  themselves,  of  the  family  of  God, 
with  the  right  to  know  Him  and  be  known  and  loved 
of  Him.  Oh!  that  our  young  people  could  come  to 
know  familiarly  the  faces  of  our  missionaries,  the  ap- 
pearance of  oiir  institutions,  founded  and  built  for  the 
propagation  of  the  gospel,  and  the  conversion  of  the 
heathen ; the  faces  and  features  of  some  of  the  native 
teachers,  whom  w’e  have  trained,  that  there  may  be 
given  them  such  an  interest  in  the  work  of  missions,  as 
to  cause  them  find  the  places  of  our  work  upon  the 
globes,  that  are  to  be  found  in  their  studies  or  school- 
rooms ; that  they  may  even  learn  to  know,  when  the 
day  begins  and  when  the  sun  sets,  in  those  “far  away 
lands,”  so  that,  taught  thereby  and  breathing,  as  it 
were,  into  their  very  souls  a love  for  the  cause,  they 
may  more  intelligently  and  willingly  work  for  the  gifts, 
which,  like  the  widow’s  mite,  are  precious  indeed  in 
God’s  sight,  and  which  will  open  their  hearts  to  grander 
things  as  life  with  its  opportunities  comes  on.  Ye  fa- 
thers and  mothers,  try  the  suggestion  with  your  own 
children,  in  your  own  homes,  and  see  what  blessings  it 
will  bring. 

Then,  with  our  church ; nay,  the  whole  of  Protestant 
Christianity  brought  back  to  a simplicity  of  doctrine 
and  form  of  worship ; and  through  a knowledge  of,  and 
belief  in  a personal  Savior,  to  close  communion  and  fel- 
lowship with  each  other,  neither  dogma,  nor  ritual  will 


— J8  - 


be  supreme;  but  a virile  “common  law’’  of  religion  ac- 
cepted by  all,  and  then  like  a mighty  army  will  move 
the  church  of  God. 

Then  it  will  be,  that  this  old  church  shall  feel  still 
more,  and  to  its  farthest  finger-tips,  the  thrill  of  the 
impulse  of  the  blood  of  heroic  life,  in  every  vein,  and 
nerve,  and  fiber,  arousing  its  heart  to  the  most  tender, 
loving,  earnest,  faithful  and  everlasting  desire  “to  do 
and  to  suffer,’’  and  developing  in  its  brain,  the  noblest 
conceptions  not  only  of  its  duty,  but  of  the  manner  in 
which  it  is  to  perform  its  part,  in  the  great  battle  for 
the  possession  of  the  earth,  that  is  before  the  followers 
of  Christ  today. 

It  is  such  a spirit  as  this,  indeed,  that  will  fill  your 
pews  with  devout  worshipers,  give  us  a consecrated  life 
in  our  homes,  elevate  the  standard  of  our  institutions 
for  the  training  of  our  leaders,  enlist  the  sympathy  of 
the  laity  of  our  church,  cause  them  to  take  a larger  and 
more  effective  participation  in  the  work  and  govern- 
ment of  the  church,  and  in  the  conduct  of  its  affairs, 
and  to  stand  together,  as  “brethren’’  in  fact,  as  well  as 
in  name,  create  such  a spirit  of  affection  for,  and  pride 
in  the  ministry,  of  the  church,  in  the  hearts  of  our  peo- 
ple, as  will  make  the  fathers  and  mothers  of  the  church 
desire  and  pray,  that  their  sons  might  become  ministers 
like  them,  and  fill  the  depleted  ranks,  with  a host  of 
noble  and  unselfish  spirits,  whose  only  thought  shall 
be,  “woe  is  me  if  I preach  not  the  gospel,’’  and  so  full 
of  passionate  love,  for  the  missionary  work  of  the  church, 
as  to  prompt  them  to  keep  in  their  minds  and  hearts, 
and  preach  from  their  pulpits,  the  inspiring  words  of 
that  grand  missionary  hymn  of  the  American  Church  ; 

“Up  lift  the  banner,  let  it  float, 

Skyward  and  seaward,  high  and  wide. 

The  sun  shall  light  its  shining  folds. 

The  Cross,  on  which,  the  Saviour  died. 

Up  lift  the  banner,  let  it  float 
Skyward  and  seaward,  high  and  wide. 

Our  glory  only  in  the  Cross, 

Our  only  hope  the  Crucified.” 


